12 August 2020
Dear editor,
This morning's news that our country has entered its deepest recession on record shows that we are still a long way off from economic recovery. Despite the Government’s efforts, we can no longer hope for a swift V-shaped recovery and must brace ourselves for the challenges ahead.
The Government must focus on delivering a long-term economic strategy to help put the UK back on a sustainable, sound footing and tackle the systemic challenges it faces which this crisis has only exacerbated (e.g. low productivity, high dependency on low-skill service sector jobs, regional imbalance, and weak social mobility).
To address this, the Government must deliver support in key areas including cutting employers’ national insurance bills to help keep people employed and create new jobs, identifying and directing skills training towards jobs and sectors with real-wage growth potential, and designing appropriate measures to support SMEs and new startups, such as creating a new Growth Accelerator Scheme.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA
Chief Executive — Management Accounting
The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, part of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants